Scrivener

Often I am asked “what do you write in?” It’s a question one a lot of writers are asked and one I am very eager to answer: I write with Scrivener on a Mac, and I absolutely love it.

Scrivener is a hard program to really explain. Everyone uses it differently. In a lot of ways it’s like Photoshop in that it becomes what the user needs it to be. If you’re writing a screenplay it can accommodates that, if you’re working on a novel and like working scene to scene it can work with that as well, if you’re like me and write in chronological order Scrivener allows that as well.

It’s an organizer. A note keeper. A name generator. It can be just input (like the screenshot above) removing all distractions and allowing you to focus only on your words. It can also be an alarm, notifying you know when you have hit your word count goal. In short: it’s incredibly powerful.

Like most customizable programs the learning curve can be a bit daunting. Rather than rehash what has been written about time and again, I’ve collected links by folks like me who use Scrivener, people who have converted to Scrivener, and why you might want to consider it for your own writing:

Since we’re on the eve of NaNoWriMo I should add: if you don’t use Scrivener and are participating in NaNoWriMo I wouldn’t encourage switching to any new program. Not yet. For now write what you’re comfortable in and come to Scrivener when you able to spend some time to learn a new piece of software and aren’t trying to put up 1613 words a day.

Thanks for including my post in your list. I love Scrivener… it has revolutionised my writing process. I particularly love the way it allows me to move scenes around, but there’s so much more as well. Nice to meet another fan! :-)

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